Stephen Frye, PhD

Thanks to support from the University Cancer Research Fund, Dr. Stephen Frye, former worldwide head of discovery medicinal chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline, was recruited in October 2007 to lead the new Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery (CICBDD) at UNC's Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

To increase the impact of translational research, the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery is bringing medicinal chemistry expertise to bear on biological targets of therapeutic potential for cancer and other diseases. CICBDD scientists are creating dedicated, multidisciplinary project teams with other groups on campus to move these targets through the drug discovery and pre-clinical development process.

One of the first projects involves a collaboration to discover a new potential therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children. The Center is also building a collaborative plan with the Structural Genomics Consortium and the National Institutes of Health National Chemical Genomics Center to discover chemical probes.